A quick pop at Argos

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FatAndy wrote: »

Yes, but my question is why should I be forced to pay a surcharge of, give or take, 20% for a delivery service that I don't want or need. As I said above I thought that this was a money SAVING website so I'm really surprised at the number of people who are making excuses for Argos.

It might be a money saving site but I see no reason for criticising a company that acts within reason and in it's clearly stated terms. If your not happy with those you should shop elsewhere. Anyway many of the reviews on the Argos site suggest that this is a bit of tat hardly worth the delivery charge so be grateful that the Argos terms have saved you some money.

FatAndy

stugib wrote: »

You seem to have 2 issues:
1. Argos don't make it available to collect in store. That doesn't just happen, there has to be a whole system in place to arrange orders, delivery, it takes storage space etc. Up to them whether they want to do that or not, and they've evidently decided it's not cost effective.

2. The price displayed for home-delivery only should be inclusive of delivery. You say you fail to see the relevance of it being a flat charge - it's absolutely relevant, and nothing to do with being forced to buy additional items. As simple as I can put it, if the item was shown as £38 delivered, how much would two items be?

1. I've never worked for Argos but they clearly have a very clever automated stock replenishment system in place. They also have a system to allow customers to reserve items in stock in stores. I'm guessing that they deliver to all their stores on a very regular basis. How difficult would it be to combine these processes to allow create a collect from store option. I suspect given the systems already in place this would be very easy to do and wouldn't cost very much.

2. I really feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall on this. I do not give a monkeys that the delivery is a flat rate. I wanted to buy an item that I could carry in my car. It's flat packed so it wasn't bulky, it wasn't particularly heavy and wouldn't take up a huge amount of space. I therefore do not need a home delivery service. If some people are so bone idle that they can't lift themselves off their own backsides and expect everything to be delivered to their front door then more fool them, but I don't see why I should have to subsidise their laziness.

And yes I do realise that not everyone can collect from a store for various reasons so apologies in advance if you have genuine reasons for using home delivery.

stugib

FatAndy wrote: »

1. How difficult would it be to combine these processes to allow create a collect from store option. I suspect given the systems already in place this would be very easy to do and wouldn't cost very much.

It's very different doing regular stock replenishment than handling individual items on an ad-hoc basis.

FatAndy wrote: »

2. I therefore do not need a home delivery service. If some people are so bone idle that they can't lift themselves off their own backsides and expect everything to be delivered to their front door then more fool them, but I don't see why I should have to subsidise their laziness.

Tough. Argos don't offer it, it's not about people's laziness, it's something they don't think is worth doing as a business.

mrcol1000

FatAndy wrote: »

Yes, but my question is why should I be forced to pay a surcharge of, give or take, 20% for a delivery service that I don't want or need. As I said above I thought that this was a money SAVING website so I'm really surprised at the number of people who are making excuses for Argos.

But no-one is making you pay the charge!!!! No-one is making excuses of Argos. The price is clearly displayed, its clearly displayed the delivery charge and your be told the total before you pay. If your not happy with that then shop somewhere else. Its that simple. I am sure Argos will somehow carry on without your custom.

FatAndy

stugib wrote: »

It's very different doing regular stock replenishment than handling individual items on an ad-hoc basis.

Sorry, but this is complete gonads. Back in 1996 I went back into further education and needed to buy some fairly obscure text books. I went into my local branch of W.H. Smith who not surprisingly didn't have the books I needed in store. However they were able to take an order from me and a couple of days later I returned to the branch to collect them. I only paid the cover price, there were no added charges or extras.

So am I really supposed to believe that thirteen years later a high street retailer with one of the largest concentration of stores in the country and probably the most sophisticated stock control and distribution systems in operation can't provide a similar service to that which other retailers offered at least a decade and a half ago? Sorry but I'm not stupid enough to believe that.

Regards handling individual items - isn't that precisely what their home delivery service is currently doing? Surely all they need to do is print the address of a store rather than the customers address on the documents and address label. It isn't rocket science is it?

stugib

FatAndy wrote: »

So am I really supposed to believe that thirteen years later a high street retailer with one of the largest concentration of stores in the country and probably the most sophisticated stock control and distribution systems in operation can't provide a similar service to that which other retailers offered at least a decade and a half ago? Sorry but I'm not stupid enough to believe that.

Of course it's possible, but it'd still be a significant investment to set it up. They've decided not to. Get over it.

FatAndy

stugib wrote: »

Of course it's possible, but it'd still be a significant investment to set it up. They've decided not to. Get over it.

A 'significant investment' to change the line in the software that selects the address to be printed on the label. I think not.

Perhaps I'm just a bit out of date. I did my tour of duty in the retail industry back in the 80's (with M&S, Asda and Halfords). Back in those days the maxim was 'The customer comes first'. It seems that times have changed, and for the worse.

mrcol1000

FatAndy wrote: »

A 'significant investment' to change the line in the software that selects the address to be printed on the label. I think not.

Perhaps I'm just a bit out of date. I did my tour of duty in the retail industry back in the 80's (with M&S, Asda and Halfords). Back in those days the maxim was 'The customer comes first'. It seems that times have changed, and for the worse.

But they are putting the customer first. They are offering a wider range of products that its possible to sell through their retial outlets and then subisding the delivery charge to do so.

Just going back to your story in the local paper when you complained about not having the delivery men help you take the sofa into your house. How exactly did you expect to the arch you were buying into your house from your car?

alison999

FatAndy wrote: »

If you order items over £25 from Tesco Direct you can arrange for them to be delivered to a Tesco store and collect them free of charge at that store. I'm pretty sure that other retailers can offer this services so why not Argos?

vast majority of argos stores arent as big as tesco stores

mrcol1000 wrote: »

But if I buy a pair of socks from Littlewoods at £5 I still get charged £3.95 postage? I could easily put them in the boot of my car. There are millions of things that are advertised on the internet for sale and in catalouges that you have to pay a postage charge for. If you think its unfair then don't buy the item!
Some people really have too much time on their hands!!

some people need some real problems instead of spending their time on things like this!

FatAndy

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Just going back to your story in the local paper when you complained about not having the delivery men help you take the sofa into your house. How exactly did you expect to the arch you were buying into your house from your car?

Um, that wasn't me in the story (DO'H). It was just a story which featured in the Daily Post Newspaper earlier this week. In answer to part two of your query I would have done exactly what the delivery man did - slung it under one arm and carried it. As I keep repeating - IT WAS NOT HEAVY!!!!